Well, Amazon is up their shenanigans again. Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Fire tablet, Fire TV, and now this? After reading this review, and this review too, I decided I had to check out the ‘Amazon Dash Wand‘. And why not? The Wand costs $20 (plus tax), but you get a $20 credit to your Amazon account – after you register the Wand. That makes the purchase price very reasonable…
But why the Wand when I already own an Echo or two. Understanding my penchant for tech gadgets, that’s about all the justification I could muster. But when the Wand arrived and the (non-trivial) setup was done, I was pretty impressed with the device. For starters, it is another Alexa device (mostly). But beyond that, it’s also a barcode scanner (mostly).
As an Alexa device, I can ask it questions, have it tell me jokes, and many other things the Echo and Echo Dot can do. Be advised though, Amazon did not intend the Wand to replace the Echo, so here are some things the Wand CAN’T do, some of which you might actually care about (source). The Wand can’t:
- play a song
- set timers or reminders, or act as an alarm clock
- play ‘flash (news) briefings’
- connect to your calendar…
But it does interface with my home automation, so the Wand will turn lights on and off (via an Insteon Hub). The Wand is also a barcode scanner, which helps reorder items you might already own. When you scan an item (cereal box, composition book, etc.) that item will be added directly to you Amazon shopping cart. This action does not complete the order, so you’ll need to do that separately, which I think is a good thing. Then when you log into your shopping cart, you can change quantities, look for better deals, etc.
Although not a must-have device, the Amazon Dash Wand is an interesting gadget at a very reasonable (like free) price. That might be justification enough…
